Hi, I have a serious problem with my pc. This occurred about 6:45am and I have been playing with it on and off since. I turned it on this morning and it booted fine. Then while reading emails it blue screened and died. I got it to reboot and now it bluescreens after the windows log on screen. It also does the same thing if I try and go into safe mode, blue screen after the log on. I am using vista ultimate with all updates and service packs applied. I am running an intel i3 processor with 4gb ram, 2 sata hard drives, 2 standard IDE and an IDE DVD drive. I also run with two monitors (one via VGA one via the DVI/HDMI port (not sure what is it). The pc will normally boot (I will come to this in a moment). It gets to the windows log on screen and waits for my password as normal. There is no hard drive activity. I type in the password and windows accesses the hard drive. It then fades the screen to black as normal. The mouse is working fine as I can move it on the second monitor. Then the PC will bluescreen. It comes up with what I think was an "IRQ_LESS_THAN_ZERO" error from the brief glimpse I got. It then rebooted. At this point the PC will not boot for a while. It powers up and after about 10 seconds before the BIOS startup info is shown you hear something like a relay trip and the PC turns off. A few seconds later the process is repeated until I power the PC right down. Update 1 (9am): Just swapped the PSU from a 450w to a 600w from my daughters PC. I still get the same problems so it is not PSU related as best I can tell. This time windows rebooted without giving a specific error just that it was a "serious error". Edit 2 (11:45am): I have tried to load the Windows Vista DVD. It started to load and got about 3/4 way through when it said it had a problem due to some "hardware or software changes". It said about rebooting and while I was trying to read the rest the PC turned off It then started doing as above with the power up, power down. I turned the PC off at the mains and disconnected the three additional hard drives I have leaving only the main boot drive, my DVD drive connected. Thus reducing the load on the PSU as much as I physically can. The pc powered up and then the internal speaker started a fast repeating bleeping noise for about 10 seconds before the pc shut down again and started a new loop. Does anyone have ANY ideas what the heck is up with my PC as I am not sure if this is windows / motherboard / PSU related or a combination of all three. Any help is really appreciated as there is stuff on that PC I do not have backed up and I cannot afford to loose. Is my motherboard dying do you think or what? really need something please. I cannot afford to pay someone to look at this so I have to do it myself. Thanks, Max
Random power failures Is there any way to test if the PSU is dying or if it is the motherboard causing random power downs? I have swapped PSU's between two computers which where working fine but I still get random power downs, followed by a power up with the internal speaker bleeping like it is on a sugar rush. I am not sure what is causing it and would really appreciate some help. Max
I take it you had a look at what came up when you Googled IRQ_LESS_THAN ZERO? There are a few this one may be of help http://windows7forums.com/blue-screen-death-bsod/45544-irq-less-than-equal-bsod.html It doesn't sound PSU related if you get the sane fault with another good PSU.
That was just one blue screen error I got, I had others which where different as windows crashed at different points on loading. So googling that one thing does not help. I am sure it is hardware related I just do not know what or how to find out. Max
your hard drive its dying, that's whats happening. Simple as that take another hard drive a make a clean OS install on it, then access your old hard drive and save the info you need. And pls pls pls... IF PPL HAVE SUCH AN IMPORTANT DATA THEY CANNONT AFFORD TO LOSE, MAKE BACKUPS, ALWAYS MAKE BACKUPS